1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the distribution of electronic content. More particularly, the present invention relates to computer mediated delivery of electronic content.
2. Background Art
Personal computers (PCs) are now to be found nearly everywhere and are used by almost everyone. What was not long ago an exotic and primarily personal possession has grown to be so common and so widely used as to have become a staple of modern communication. In the highly mobile, wired culture of today, PCs are typically available for public use in many venues where use of a truly personal communication device might be inconvenient, costly, or forbidden. As a result, public PCs have assumed a role in modern society corresponding to that of the public telephone during a now largely bygone era.
In addition to the proliferation of publicly shared PCs, the communication environment of today is populated by a dizzying variety of extremely portable mobile communication devices. Many of these highly portable mobile devices also possess substantial computing power, enabling them to replicate some of the functions performed by bulkier PCs. The presence of these multifunctional mobile devices, together with the prevalence of publicly accessible PCs, has contributed to the dispersion of traditionally personal computing activities, from a single, often home-based, computing system, to multiple independent systems, some of which may be shared by other users.
One of the benefits flowing from the dispersion of computing functionality from a single system to numerous highly portable or publicly available systems is that access to rich content, such as streaming content available from a server-based content provider, is more accessible than ever before. A user need not wait until returning home, or even until finding adequate space in a public environment to setup a personal workstation, in order to access and enjoy content available over the Internet, for example. Consequently, a commuter enduring a tedious trip, or a business traveler suffering through an all too common airport or other transit hub delay, can, in principle, alleviate the stress and unpleasantness of their immediate circumstances through the diversion available from content accessible online.
The benefits of being able to access content from many diverse locations, using a variety of computing devices may be substantially offset, however, by the increased burden resulting from the technological proficiency required to use multiple computing devices in this way. For example, access to desired online streaming content may require that a user launch a web browser local to the particular computing device being used, navigate to a web address from which the content is provided, and interact with a remote media player to control delivery and presentation of selected content. In addition, in situations in which a user owns multiple computing devices, or uses a shared or public system for the first time, drivers and other software required for interoperability with a particular media player may have to be downloaded and installed to enable each of the computing devices to interact with the available content.
Moreover, because conventional approaches to enabling access to content typically localize the relevant drivers, control application, and user history to a particular computing device, it may be inconvenient or even impossible to enjoy a single lengthy presentation across more than one computing device. For example, a business traveler viewing a streaming television episode on a public PC provided at an airport, while awaiting a departure perhaps, may wish to interrupt the presentation to board a flight, and then resume viewing the episode at a later time using a personal communication device. Because the conventional approach to enabling access to content localizes and identifies a viewing session with the particular computing device used—in this case a public PC—the user has no convenient way to resume enjoyment of the content at the place he or she left off.
An attempt to resume viewing of the episode at a later time, using another computing device, might require the user to begin the presentation anew, or to remember and locate the point at which the earlier presentation session was interrupted, and try to adjust the presentation to begin at that point. As a result, even for a technically savvy user, accessing the available content may prove to be more inconvenient than pleasurable. For a technically naïve user, the obstacles to enjoyment may simply be overwhelming.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a solution enabling even a novice user to readily access desired content, utilizing any one of a variety of computing devices, such that information relevant to user viewing history can be recorded independently of any single computing device used to access the content, thereby enabling the user to intelligently pause-and-resume content.